Tag Archives: gender equality

Want the best-paid job in procurement? The upshot from two key reports: be prepared to move, think strategically and develop your soft skills.

At a time of supply chain globalisation and the frenetic adoption of e-commerce, procurement professionals are emerging from dusty back rooms and warehouses to claim their rightful place as key facilitators of doing business.

The advent of online giants such as Amazon is placing an increased emphasis on moving goods swiftly into consumers’ hands – often on the same day. At the same time, borders are becoming increasingly irrelevant as multinationals seek to source goods and services in ever-efficient ways.

Given the seismic changes, it’s a great time to work in procurement.

But be warned!

The increased demand for skilled professionals does not necessarily translate into greater monetary rewards, let alone more perks, with some sectors (or geographies) offering better conditions than others.

Two recent major salary surveys highlight the remuneration trends – and discrepancies – across the key English-speaking jurisdictions of the UK and the US.

Australian and Irish surveys also support the overall picture of excellent demand outstripping supply in most markets.

In some cases, employers are battling to find the right candidates. But the surveys also show the environment is fast evolving and practitioners need to upgrade their skills constantly.

On a disappointing note, the surveys also show the empowerment movement that emerged from Hollywood’s “Me Too” push is yet to translate into equal salaries and opportunities for women.

Some employers also bemoan a dearth of soft skills. In other words, job candidates may be technically proficient but are poor communicators or lack emotional intelligence.

The bottom line – UK salaries

Brexit is increasing demand for procurement professionals in the British market, according to the annual survey undertaken by the UK Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS), in league with the recruitment firm Hays.

As CIPS explains, Brexit (Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union) is already creating supply-chain upheaval, with one in seven EU businesses with UK suppliers already sourcing these goods and services elsewhere.

The spectre of protectionism and tariffs promises even more upheaval.

“Professionals will need strategic skills, data management and a steady disposition to help businesses find their way through the particular challenges faced by their organisations,” CIPS says in its 2018 Procurement Salary Guide and Insights.

Overall, 68 per cent of the 4000 survey respondents earned a pay rise in 2017, averaging 5.1 per cent. That’s 4 per cent more than the previous year and well above the 2.2 per cent increase for British toilers overall.

At the top of the tree, Chief Procurement Officers (CPOs) earned an average £124,000, 11 per cent higher than the previous year’s £112,000.

Experience, overall, is being rewarded: of respondents with more than two decades’ experience, 72 per cent received a pay rise compared with 53 per cent for those with fewer than two years’ experience. However, the latter received an average 6 per cent rise compared with 4 per cent for the veterans.

The bottom line – US salaries

Naseem Malik, managing partner of Virginia-based recruiter TYGES Elite describes the US market for procurement staff as being at an all-time high. Latest reports suggest there are 650,000 more openings than there are qualified workers.

“The procurement market has been tightening for the past couple of years and is definitely showing no signs of abating,” Malik says.

This was less than the 5 per cent increase recorded in 2016. However, median compensation rose 4.2 per cent to $US100,000 ($US96,000 previously).

At the rarefied end, average pay for the top 5 per cent of earners fell by 4.5 per cent to $US368,505.

Emerging practitioners – those with less than four years’ experience – could expect $US77,996 on average.

Of the respondents – 2979 in all – 85 per cent saw their base salary increase, with only 5 per cent taking a salary haircut.

Of the former, the average increase was 5.3 per cent, while those who missed out saw their pay packet decline 7.6 per cent.

Malik says that US entry level to mid-management level salaries have steadily increased by 8-10 per cent annually since 2016.

“When it comes to senior levels, we are finding their total compensation packages have stayed competitive, with a focus on enhanced long term incentives as a reward.”

Mind the (gender) gap

Sisters might be doing it for themselves, but it looks like they will need some help at a structural level to reach pay parity with their male peers.

“Across all industries there’s a gender pay gap; it’s talked about daily,” says Tony Megally, general manager of specialist Australian procurement recruiter The Source. “That’s an ongoing challenge and a conversation we need to have.”

The firm surveyed 1000 industry professionals and found 59 per cent were male and 41 per cent were female. At leadership level, the imbalance rises further – to 62 per cent male and 38 per cent female.

Megally finds that men are far more willing to nominate an ambitious salary, “whereas females feel they need to be an expert and have all the knowledge in order to ask.”

As a result, the firm is consistently coaching female candidates to push for what they think they deserve and to back themselves.

The UK report revealed slippage in progress, however, with 71 per cent of men and 64 per cent of women receiving a pay rise in 2018.

This compared with a 65-63 per cent split in 2017 and marks a regression to 2016 levels.

But of the women who did win an increase, they did better than men: a 5.3 per cent rise as opposed to 4.9 per cent.

“The most striking pay disparity remains at advanced professional level, where men earned 33 per cent more than women (£85,398 compared with £63,986), a pay gap that is even larger than last year’s 25 per cent,” the CIPS report says.

However, women earned more than men in a number of operational and tactical roles, including as procurement officers, contract officers, assistant buyers and purchasing assistants.

The US study shows a similar disparity at all seniority levels.

Male chief procurement officers earned an average $US279,413 compared with $US221,137 for their female counterparts, a 26 per cent disparity.

At procurement manager/sourcing manager levels, men earned an average $US119,492 compared with $US103,903 for women, a 15 per cent difference.

There’s always a ‘but’: average salaries for females increased 1.8 per cent to an average $US98,780, pipping the average male increase of 0.9 per cent. Then again, the average male salary of $US127,908 was that much higher in the first place.

TYGES Elite’s Malik says the US gender gap is shrinking, with the trend likely to continue because of new laws in several US states that ban employers asking candidates what their current salary is.

“Companies now have to put a competitive offer on the table to ensure they close the candidate,” he says. “Otherwise, they lose out to companies that have a better handle on the marketplace.”

In Australia, Jigsaw Talent Management reports an average salary of $A172,730 for males placed this year, compared with $A153,139 for females. That’s a difference of 13 per cent, compared with 11 per cent four years earlier. But the story is nuanced, with females out-earning males in the highest category ($A200,000 and above) and the lowest category ($A100,000 and below).

According to Nikki Bell, the chair of the CIPS Congress, the profession does not appear to be bucking the “ever present” gender pay gap despite its reputation as enablers and innovators.

“We simply must do more to enable skills and career opportunities and eradicate any diversity-related road blocks,” she says.

Where to find the best (and worst) positions

The ISM survey shows that taking a global approach helps bolster the pay packet: international sourcing operatives topped the scale at $US140,565 overall.

There also appears to be industry appetite for aspiring James Bonds, with ‘market intelligence’ professionals earning an average $US139,472.

For a market intelligence chief – the industry equivalent of ‘M’ in the Bond movies – the average pay was a chart-busting $US337,132. (Keep that confidential, of course.)

While candidates might not rate social responsibility highly on their list of imperatives, it pays – literally – to take on those roles. A sustainability/social responsibility officer earns an average $US135,300, while a chief supply chain sustainability officer (or equivalent) earns $US325,992.

In the UK, the best industry sub-sectors for getting a raise were defence (88 per cent of staff), pharmaceuticals and life sciences (85 per cent), hotels and catering (83 per cent) and fast moving consumer goods (81 per cent). But the best pay rises in quantum terms went to workers in the telco and marketing/advertising/PR sectors, with increases of 8 per cent and 7.4 per cent respectively.

The ISM survey reveals a vast disparity between salaries depending on industry sector.

The best sector to be in is healthcare, which would appear to be generally impervious to economic conditions. With ageing western populations, it’s also a natural growth sector.

Healthcare procurement professionals earned an average $US148,360. Also faring well were those in fuel and utilities ($US136,578) and telecommunications ($US138,863).

The worst paid were those in manufacturing ($US117,636), metals ($US120,255) and electronics ($US121,316).

Hot demand Down Under

Thanks partly to billions of dollars of infrastructure projects, including massive rail network expansions in Melbourne, Australia can’t get enough of the right procurement people.

“It’s been a really hot market this year,” says The Source’s Tony Megally. “The Australian economy is growing generally so it’s really tight finding the right people across all industries.”

On the services side, candidates with deep knowledge of the telco and I.T. sectors are also in huge demand, especially at mid-to-senior levels such as sourcing or category manager.

Megally says more mid-tier corporates are investing in procurement functions, often the result of bringing in management consultants to review the supply chain.

“Traditionally, they have not had a centralised procurement function and bring on a leader to create the pathways and processes on how to better spend their money on goods and services.”

At the periphery, talent supply has been constrained by the Australian government’s crackdown on 457 visas – temporary working permits for foreigners – with procurement removed from the list of eligible professions.

Irish eyes are also smiling

Irish-based recruitment firm Morgan McKinley says supply chain management has become one of Ireland’s fastest growing sectors, partly because the country will remain a member of the European Union. This means that many companies prefer Ireland over the UK for their procurement activities and shared service functions.

That is being reflected in remuneration, with average salaries increasing by 3-5 per cent year on year.

Employees in highly skilled senior roles are enjoying salary packages that are 15-20 per cent higher.

“Those planning to secure a new career opportunity can expect an increase of between 8-12 per cent. With an increase in opportunities and a continuing skills shortage, we expect this trend to continue next year,” the firm says.

“We equally expect there to be an increase in the number of supply chain professionals choosing Ireland as their desired work location in the coming years, therefore increasing the talent on offer and potentially suppressing continued salary growth.”

More than money?

Most professionals would likely volunteer that job satisfaction factors outweigh the amount that lands in their bank account every month.

But don’t be fooled: money is important.

The US ISM survey asked respondents to rank 14 factors when considering a job. The result? Eighty-five per cent cited the hip pocket, followed by job satisfaction (81 per cent).

An improved work-life balance (80 per cent), pension plans (78 per cent) and medical and dental benefits (79 per cent) also ranked highly.

Respondents were less enamored with health and wellness schemes, with only 60 per cent considering morning calisthenics or a free gym an influential factor.

Only 58 per cent considered sustainability or social responsibility programs to be important, while 58 per cent were attracted by mentorship programs.

Also ranking lowly were childcare and elder care benefits. Given the ageing population, we might expect the latter to become a more elevated consideration in coming years.

Education counts

For procurement professionals, the embossed paper on the wall does count when it comes to salary and – presumably – job satisfaction.

The ISM survey shows the average industry salary for a high-school graduate is $US83,283 – above that overall for those starting out ($US77,996).

For those with a bachelor’s degree, the stipend increases to $US106,909 and then to $US137,670 for a master’s. For doctorate holders – only 2 per cent of procurement professionals have them – the average salary rises further to $US175,827.

Industry-specific qualifications are even more crucial: practitioners holding one or more ISM certifications earned an average 12.8 per cent more than those without: $US123,041 versus $US109,087.

Holders of the Certified Professional in Supply Management qualification boosted pay by 14 per cent to $US125,158, relative to peers without the paperwork.

Similarly, holders of a Certified Professional in Supplier Diversity pulled in $US124,337 – 14 per cent more.

In the UK, CIPS members (MCIPS) earned an average 16 per cent more, with the disparity increasing according to seniority. Senior buyers who are MCIPS earn an eye watering 23 per cent more than non-MCIPS.

“But we must not rest on our laurels,” says CIPS CEO Gerry Walsh. “Continuing professional development should be high on everyone’s agenda to always improve and find the right level of achievement.

“So, I hope this year our professionals will read more and do more to up their game and increase their usefulness so boards and CEOs sit up and take notice of how fundamental good procurement is for their business.”

Soft skills give a hard edge

It’s instructive that 67 per cent of total respondents said they had never received formal training in these skills, while less than one quarter (23 per cent) thought that academic institutions instilled the right skills.

The Source’s Megally says, traditionally, procurement has been perceived as a technical function, “but soft skills are front of mind.”

“Rather than talking about processes, it’s about building relationships and being a sales person, really,” he says.

“You can train someone in the technical elements, but those with a strong emotional intelligence are able to connect.”

TYGES Elite’s Malik says: “Soft skills have absolutely become just as important, if not more important, than merely technical skills when it comes to landing A players in the procurement world.

“Employers assume that the technical know-how will be there and they can assess that in their interviewing process. But they are just as concerned on the EQ side as well. They want candidates who understand stakeholder engagement and can build relationships both internally and externally.”

Meeting the industry’s challenges

As with any profession, procurement professionals must take the initiative in enhancing their worth to an organization. To borrow from John F Kennedy, ask not what your company can do for you, but what you can do for the company.

CIPS Congress chair Nikki Bell says the solution lies with individuals taking an active approach to learning and development, with an emphasis on the soft skills such as communication.

“As senior professionals and employers, we should not only be using our honed influencing and negotiating skills to address the matter directly within our hiring, reward and recognition policies,” she says.

“We should also be looking at what we can do individually and collectively to actively encourage, enable, mentor or support diversity in all its forms within our procurement communities, from entry level through to senior and executive leadership positions.”

She adds the profession must also seize the opportunity to ensure ethical and fair work practices across all supply chains.

A key message from the surveys is that the biggest pay rises are being awarded to those who can rebrand themselves as ‘analysts’: think of big data specialists, predictive analytics, e-procurement, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

As in so many walks of life, presentation is paramount in procurement.

Have women smashed through the glass ceiling in the last thirty years?

Seeing the many posts regarding International Women’s Day made me think – what is all this fuss about?

We’ve got this sorted, haven’t we?

But then I think back to where my procurement journey began and realise only 30 years ago the world of procurement that I inhabited was vastly different to the one we work in now.

I realise that I was complicit because I just kind of accepted it as ‘the man’s world’ that I had dared to enter.

February 1987

I started out in February 1987. I remember my first boss in civil engineering saying

“Mandy, you are very good at what you do, but you have two problems, one is that you are young and two is that you are female.”

He went on to tell me that I’d have to work really hard to prove myself in the ‘buying game’.

He had a point.

I remember the crane driver who refused to take a request from me because “he wouldn’t take orders from a woman” (yes, really!). I recall how I was referred to as the ‘lady buyer’ and on a good day was perceived as a ‘bit of a novelty’. I just brushed it off and got on with it, never realising how accepting this would have ramifications for other females in my position or that I would be calling it out in an article years later for the blatant sexual discrimination that it was.

Ten Years Later…

In 1997, ten years later, I remember an appraisal with my then boss at a manufacturing organisation. During the meeting, he spoke about the ‘glass ceiling’ and how I should manage my career aspirations accordingly.

I didn’t even know what the glass ceiling was at that time but I got the gist of what he was saying.

Fifteen Years Later

Fast forward another five years, to 2002, and I’m the only member in a group of all male managers who doesn’t have a company car as part of their employee package.

I grumbled and moaned, but it was only when I pointed out that I was

The only member who didn’t have a company car in that group

and

That I hoped this wasn’t because I was the only female…

…that the car miraculously materialised!

Twenty-Five Years Later

Ten years later as Regional Procurement Director at TATA Steel (as you can imagine, pretty much a male dominated environment) the words of my first boss echoed in my ears.

I HAD to prove myself. This meant turning up at meetings when my son was sick at home, early starts and late finishes balancing motherhood and a career, whilst trying to build productive relationships with colleagues in the business.

“Finding success” were the words of my Engineering Director colleague when he pointed out that relationships between Procurement and Engineering had never been better.

The Buying Game

While I hope this article shows how far women have come in the “buying game” and how behaviours and attitudes have changed, and that I now personally feel total peer equality with my male counterparts, I would hate for any other women in procurement to feel gender inequality and just brush it off as expected.

I don’t regret my decisions, I did what I thought was right at the time but in this modern age of procurement, it isn’t acceptable – so don’t stand for it.

There is still so much more we can do, for all women in procurement. I would rather be seen as a success and a woman rather than a success because I am a woman.

Even in 2018 this is a rarity, in manufacturing especially. To International Women’s Day and all women in procurement

Job satisfaction comes down to three things: autonomy, mastery and purpose. Does this explain why millennials are dominating in the tech industry?

Anton_Ivanov/Shutterstock.com

Numerous industries have been accused of many different types of hiring bias and flawed hiring policy.

The service industry, for example, has long been subject to questions about its lack of affirmative action in this area based on the demographic of candidates that tend to be allocated these roles. The same applies even within typically diverse workforces.

Hiring bias at its worst

Few sectors have faced the intense scrutiny aimed at the tech world in recent years, owing to its pervasive reputation for hiring vastly disproportionate percentages of younger males.

A quick Google search of “industry hiring bias” results in almost an entire first page of links to think pieces about Silicon Valley.

There are countless arguments to be made on the subject, many of which rightly focus on the urgency of addressing this gender imbalance. One popular proposal for tapping into the vast, and shamefully underused, female talent pool suggests funding schools to better promote careers for women in computer science.

But if the tech industry is also heavily skewed towards youth, how long would those careers remain satisfying for?

Job satisfaction at the biggest tech firms

This latter question prompted a recent research project by online compensation and benefits analyst Payscale. By gathering data from almost 35,000 workers across 17 of the biggest tech firms in the world – including eBay, Google, Cisco, Facebook, Samsung, Intel, Apple and Microsoft – researchers attempted to gain an overview of how employees’ job satisfaction levels mapped on to various metrics such as median age, early and mid-career pay levels, and total years of industry experience.

When transposed as a series of infographics, the data seems to highlight some marked trends across the board: in particular, workforces with higher average ages in the study group (notably IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle and Samsung) were among the lowest-scoring in terms of overall job satisfaction.

Moreover, many of the same names also placed highly in terms of their employees’ length of tenure with the company and total years of industry experience, while coming in amongst the lower rankings for both early- and mid-career median pay levels. Taken at face value, this immediately presents various possible scenarios.

One natural observation would be that the ‘more satisfied’ workers were often among those being paid the most relative to their experience, which, let’s face it, doesn’t seem much of a hot take.

What appears to be a fairly direct inverse correlation between median age and reported job satisfaction is potentially more interesting, but the question remains as to whether this phenomenon is in any way unique to the tech industry. After all, there’s every chance that the methodology of the study simply benefits companies who have a high turnover of younger, less experienced workers, whose expectations and needs are typically less complex at such an early career stage.

Are millennials best-suited to tech jobs?

When it comes specifically to tech roles, and the fact that they’re so commonly filled by younger-than-average staff (the national median age for a US worker is 42; at Facebook, it’s just 29), many people don’t think it’s quite that simple.

The much-quoted author, speaker and ‘business guru’ Daniel Pink, responsible for such widely read titles as Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, might be chief among them. Pink’s theories around what ultimately leads to lasting job satisfaction focus on the triumvirate of ‘autonomy, mastery and purpose’. In other words, a sense of independence, a feeling of capability, and a genuine motivation to keep plugging away.

Millennials entering the tech industry may be particularly well-placed to tick all three of those key boxes because of, not in spite of, their age. Pink notes that, having grown up in an environment of always-on connectivity that didn’t fully exist 20 years ago, millennials are finding it much easier to adapt as the internet rapidly erodes the decades-old concept of a standard office-based work week.

He also points out that today’s all-pervasive digital culture means new graduates no longer seek to separate their work and social lives to nearly the same extent as previous generations did. As a result, the boundary between professional performance and success in other areas of millennials’ lives is arguably less clearly defined; this in turn becomes an obvious source of general motivation that perfectly suits the thrust and structure of many cutting-edge tech firms.

Combatting age discrimination

The extent to which these sorts of theories hold water is very much up for debate. What we do know is that the debate is heating up: last year, Bloomberg reported that in just eight short years, 226 complaints pertaining to age discrimination had been registered against the top 150 Silicon Valley firms.

While tech employers continue to perform well in global Best Employer lists, the conversation will certainly benefit from some longer-term data as we start to develop a clearer picture of career movement across the wider industry in the coming years.

Ah, the joys of parenting! If you’ve got children, you’ll know that it’s pretty damn difficult, and costly, to return to the workplace post-parental leave – as if you needed that extra stress! What should your organisation be doing to ease your transition?

Nomad_Soul/Shutterstock.com

You’re coming to the end of nine months (give or take) parental leave and my guess is that you’ve never felt less “in the zone”. You’re sleeping an average of four hours a night, haven’t had a shower in three days, can’t remember the last time you had a conversation about something other than nappies, Peppa Pig or puréed carrots and you’ve got 2157 emails, and counting, in your inbox.

Returning to work after having children is tough for numerous reasons; leaving your child(ren) in someone else’s care (and paying a hefty fee for the privilege), negotiating flexible working conditions, re-adapting to work and taking a sizeable pay cut to name but a few.

The true cost of maternity leave

It won’t come as a surprise that women are the most economically punished in this scenario.

A recentUK study by PwC, entitled “The £1 billion career break penalty for professional women” revealed that women returning to the workplace post-parental leave are losing out on an average of £4000 anually.

Numerous reports have considered the hours worked (around 100 p/w) by stay-at-home mums and calculated their deserved salaries (in excess of £100,000) but we aren’t living in a dream world. Most women, in some capacity, have to return to the real world and they sure as heck aren’t earning what they deserve or filling the roles that reflect their experience and skillset. Indeed, PwC’s report suggest that two-thirds of women are working below their potential when they return to work and one in five are moving into lower-paid roles.

The stigma associated with CV gaps and a lack of workplace flexibility in many organisations are both contributing factors to these concerning statistics, but there is some hope! By fully utilising the female-returner workforce, the UK could add £1.7 billion to its economy. And a number of organisations are recognising this and taking promising steps to implement programmes that make the transition back to work seamless and accommodating for working parents.

Here are a few examples:

1. Offer mid-career returnships

Think you might be too old for an internship? What about a returnship? Returnships, open to men and women, are a growing trend in UK businesses, aimed at helping those who have taken extended career breaks by updating skills and easing people’s fear about big CV gaps and a lacking or out of date skillset.

Women Returners explain that “Returnships are higher-level internships which act as a bridge back to senior roles for experienced professionals who have taken an extended career break. They are professionally-paid short-term employment contracts, typically of 3-6 months, with a strong possibility of an ongoing role at the end of the programme.”

And the benefits are two-fold with the employer benefitting as much as the employee. They gain access to a high calibre diverse talent pool and are given a low risk opportunity to assess a potential employee’s suitability for a permanent role.

Companies in the UK who currently offer returnship programmes include PwC, Deloitte, 02, Mastercard and Virgin Money. You can take a look at the full list of companies offering returnships and what these programmes entail here.

2. Let the dads parent too!

The easiest way to prevent parental leave destroying careers for women is to level the playing field for all genders.

The concept of paternity leave is still a fairly new one. Sweden became the first country in the world to introduce paid parental leave just forty years ago and, whilst more than half of EU countries have followed suit since then, the uptake is still low. Men are reluctant to take their full entitlement of paid leave because of the cultural stigma attached. Most companies and countries offer far less leave for men than women and it sends a message: “Men don’t really need parental leave.” Fear of judgement, lost career opportunities and lack of role models all contribute to the lack of uptake.

When men and women are offered, and start claiming, paid parental leave in equal measure, it becomes everyone’s problem to find better ways of accommodating this leave within businesses- and that’s when change happens!

Some of the trailblazing companies include Netfix, whose parental leave policy allows parents up to a year of flexible paid leave, Amazon, who launched “Leave Share,” allowing Amazon employees to share their paid leave with their partners and Spotify, who offer six month full pay to all parents.

3. Build a creche

Flexible working is crucial for parents upon their return from a career break. Employees who are offered flexible work options such as being able to work from home, and at hours that suit them could be the difference between a parent returning to a senior role and having to take a more junior position, for which they are overqualified. What does it matter if one of your top employees leaves at 3pm each day to collect their children if they’re willing to work late into the evening to get the job done?

We talk a lot on Procurious about better assimilating family life with the workplace and whether it’s becoming more acceptable to bring your children to work. A number of companies are better providing for their employee parents with on-site childcare facilities. Goldman Sachs, for example, opened London’s first on-site creche in 2003. It currently offers staff four weeks free care to ease the transition back to work from parental leave.

In the U.S. a third of Fortune’s top 100 companies to work for provide on-site child care.

Scores of women struggle to be their most authentic selves at work without the fear of negatively impacting their careers. How can you be your fabulous self in the workplace and still succeed!

Join the women in procurement conversation in the Procurious Bravo group.

I moderate forums quite regularly for women that focus on the themes of vulnerability, building business acumen and authentic leadership. There is a consistent theme in the conversations I have before, during and after these forums. Frustration and exasperation that women are not advancing quickly enough into leadership.

The structural, system level reasons are well documented, however women tell me:

I want to advance, but encounter barriers and exclusion due to implicit bias

I am perceived to lack the confidence that men typically do in the workplace

I want to show up authentically, confidently and courageously, but do not believe I will be rewarded for ‘being me’

Why do women feel like they cannot be authentic?

One answer is the issue of likeability. There is a catalogue of articles about the ‘Heidi/Howard’ story cited by Sheryl Sandberg in her seminal work, Lean In. Heidi who is an authentic female entrepreneur and go-getter, successful, wealthy, powerful and respected. Her success story, profile and achievements are reviewed by a group of students from NYU. Then her name is changed to Howard and the same group of students review her/his accomplishments. The students rate Heidi/Howard the same for competence, however Howard was rated as more likeable and someone that the students would prefer to work with.

Heidi is ‘selfish and not the type of person you would want to hire or work for.’

It feels true, doesn’t it? It also feels awful and contributes to the exasperation and frustration that women feel. However, there is hope. Andersen Cooper from CNN recently reran the experiment with a group of students. This time around, students rated the female entrepreneur as more likeable and desirable as a boss than the male. Hooray! But why?

Because in the 10 years since the original study, we have seen more women ascend to positions of power

Women’s participation rates in the workforce are at their highest rate ever

However, the societal expectations of how ‘nice girls’ behave and as a result, the challenge of being an authentic leader, female or male, are not shifting quickly enough.

To put a completely gendered lens to this issue; I asked women;

Can I really be me and still advance at work?

Is my authentic feminine leadership style valued the same way as traditional male leadership styles?

Disappointingly, many women say no to both questions. Women are waiting for the right environment to advance to be truly authentic feminine leaders. I say wait no longer!

We expect a lot from women

We want them to lead, manage, coordinate and juggle life, leadership and career. Often this results in women prioritising their career last in a long to do list. I want women to invest time and effort in themselves, their development and their fulfilment because I know, from my own experience, that understanding myself, my skills and how to use them effectively has positioned and propelled me into doing what I love and what the world needs. More women in leadership!

Get the career advice you need

In her Ted Talk watched over 3 million times, Susan Colantuono says get the career advice you need, not what you’ve always received! Here is some good advice;

Traditional training, development & advice will get you to the middle, not the top

Embrace your identity as a leader

Identify and act to close your leadership gaps

Identify and act to build your leadership muscle

If you want to lose weight, get fit and be healthy, then you would identify and act, wouldn’t you? You might get a gym membership, start eating healthy or engage a personal trainer to help keep you committed, focussed and accountable.

Why not use the same formula for your career?

Lose weight:lose the incomplete career advice, lose the lack of confidence.

Be healthy: discover your purpose, your vision and values then build a career advancement plan

These are logical steps but require commitment, discipline, support and expertise. That’s why I want women to think of me as their career personal trainer. I have designed a 6-step program to build the career muscles that matter for women.

Advancing Women workshops are designed to build the EQ (Emotional Quotient) IQ (Intellectual Quotient) and SQ (Social Quotient) muscles of the current and next generation of female leaders in Australia.

Advancing Women programs are not designed to ‘fix’ women, they are designed to provide the strategies, tools and the practical actions to women who are serious about advancing their prospects. The learning content is balanced to ensure that women aren’t over-committing and perfecting skills, attributes and traits they are already comfortable with and competent at. All of which result in women advancing, on their own terms!

Too scared to talk about workplace diversity and inclusion? Dominic Price will happily go first as he debunks the 5 most common myths about underrepresentation.

Danilov1991xxx/Shutterstock.com

As a 6-foot-4-inch straight white guy in tech, it might seem unusual that I’m writing about diversity and inclusion. The reason is,more of us need to: write about it, talk about it, and, especially, do something about it.

Just looking at the nightly news in recent weeks, or a new report that underscores the gaps between how tech workers view diversity within their companies and the realities of the situation, it’s apparent how crucial it is to speak out on issues of equality. Speaking up can feel uncomfortable (and heck, by writing this I know I’m making myself a target for criticism), but it’s no longer an option for those of us in groups who hold the most power to stay silent.

My colleagues rightly point out that as a white guy, I’ve got quite a bit of privilege in my industry, and there’s lots of good use for it. So, here’s my boldest attempt yet to make my privilege work for everyone. Specifically, I want to clear up some major misconceptions I hear from others, and predominantly from people who look like me.

Our position of privilege means we are the most removed from the hardships others face and we need to proactively reject the myths we hear.

Myth #1: “Why should we give women and minorities a leg up? Isn’t that unfairly prioritising one group over another?”

Standard words from a fish that doesn’t know it’s in water. It’s much easier to blame others’ misfortunes on lack of intelligence or hard work than on a lack of equal opportunities. This is a protectionist strategy by the strong and wealthy to reduce the power and potential of the perceived weak. For all of the talk about being “data-driven,” many seem to believe that everyone has an equal chance to be in the workplace, despite loads of evidence to the contrary. While it would be nice to think we are all treated equally, simply being a minority can mean being treated differently by others and having fewer social and economic opportunities.

Our position of privilege means we are the most removed from the hardships others in our industry face and need to proactively reject the myths we hear.

Advocating for increased diversity in our industry doesn’t mean people from marginalised groups want an unfair advantage or hand-outs. They just want the same opportunities that others have had.

Myth #2: “You have to be a minority to be involved in diversity & inclusion (D&I).”

A wonderful way to pass the buck. The prevalence of underrepresented minorities talking about a lack of opportunities is because they feel the pain every day and are intrinsically more motivated to make it right. Just because we’re not personally guilty of creating the unequal playing field does not mean we’re not personally responsible for helping to fixing it. When your child spills milk, do you say “not my mess”? Our predecessors helped tilt the playing field, and now it’s our turn to level it out. The sooner we realise we contributed to this problem, (even if only passively through lack of action) the quicker we move from rhetoric to making a difference.

Just because we’re not personally guilty of creating the unequal playing field does not mean we’re not personally responsible for helping to fixing it.

There are plenty of ways to get involved: From merely drawing attention to biased behaviours you see, to getting involved in your company’s existing diversity efforts, or starting your own.

Myth #3: “We just don’t have a diverse applicant pool.”

Ah, yes. A favourite of many, especially in Silicon Valley where recruiting is particularly tough — for example by 2020, there will be nearly 1.5 million unfilled computer science roles. But have you asked yourself why you don’t have a diverse pool? Are you hiring your grads from the same tiny set of schools with very homogeneous student populations? Have you searched for underrepresented candidates, or created programs to bring more into the fold? What have you changed to attract and support them? While the talent pipeline is a common excuse, in truth discrimination, implicit and explicit, constantly blocks underrepresented minorities from entering or advancing in the field; two-thirds of predominantly white and Asian women in STEM report having to constantly prove themselves in the workplace, with black women facing even more extreme biases and challenges.

It’s also worth examining your recruiting tactics to see if you’re doing anything that could be discouraging underrepresented candidates. From gendered language in job descriptions to playing up the office pool table versus paid parental leave on your careers page, you can inadvertently send the wrong message without realising it.

Myth #4: “This is political correctness gone mad.”

Political correctness is a real thing, but it’s also irrelevant to what we’re discussing here. Can efforts to promote diversity be merely political correctness when there’s a mountain of evidence pointing to it being a real problem? Many studies also show diversity has huge benefits when it comes to business and team performance, so it’s something we should all care about.

It’s true that diversity conversations can be very nuanced, which creates fear about saying the wrong thing. But there is a pretty simple fix, which is to ask questions. Listen to and believe the stories from people from backgrounds different from yours. Educate yourself. In the same way you’d tackle a new project or product feature, gather as much information as possible so you can make better, more informed decisions. This isn’t about stifling your voice, but creating room for everyone to express themselves in a way that helps us all do our best work.

Myth #5. “I don’t see gender or race” or “I treat everyone the same.”

This is straight up empirically false. Your brain sees gender, it sees race and it sees just about every other visible category imaginable, whether you consciously pay attention to it or not. Let me say it again: It is neuroscientifically impossible for you to not see attributes like race and gender, and to keep them from affecting your decision-making. I used to think treating everyone the same was what I should strive for, but it turns out that doing so actually results in discrimination and unequal opportunity. Treating everyone the same, even when they’ve faced vastly different challenges, only serves to keep them on a tilted playing field.

Embracing and supporting diversity is something we’re all responsible for and something that, by definition, we are all a part of (a single person can’t be diverse, so diversity includes white guys like me). To move forward, we need to take the crazy myths we’ve told ourselves that attempt to justify the status quo and throw them out the door. Guys like me have benefited from this mess of inequality more than any other group, so it’s our job to actively share opportunities. We’ll all win, as a team.

With what’s happening in the world, it’s important to keep an open heart and an open mind. The choice is yours. You can either become an active part of the solution or a stoic part of the issue in need of solving. Which one sounds more exciting?

Dominic West is Head of R&D and Work Futurist at Atlassin. This article was originally published on Collective Hub.

The “Don’t Argue” is a classic move in the often-brutal game of Australian Rules Football. While we wouldn’t recommend shoving your colleagues in the office, there are plenty of lessons to be drawn from the world of elite sport.

It’s always interesting interviewing sportspeople for a business-related publication. Before the interview, I usually have my doubts that I’ll be able to find something in their story that is relevant to the audience I’m writing for. Five minutes in, however, I’ve filled pages of notes about the many insights professionals can glean from elite performers.

This was the case with Daisy Pearce, AFLW star and captain of the Melbourne Team. In the space of 30 minutes, she provided links between her on-field performance and business agility, advice on how women can thrive in a male-dominated profession, and finished up with some leadership-related gems.

Daisy and the “Don’t Argue”

The theme of this year’s 10th Asia-Pacific CPO Forum (taking place on 17–18 May in Sydney) is “Pivot”. Why Pivot? Because in an era where flexibility and agility are seen as essential leadership attributes, the profession’s top practitioners must be able to pivot at a moment’s notice to gain commercial advantage from disruptive forces, including new technology. In essence, this means having the ability to rapidly and intelligently adjust short-term strategies to ensure you can achieve your organisation’s long-term objectives.

When I mentioned this term to Daisy, she immediately drew a comparison with the “Don’t Argue” move in football. “When you’ve got the ball and someone comes to tackle you, a “Don’t Argue” is when you send them off – push them away – and keep moving. Basically, you give them a shove with your arm, quickly change direction, and keep going.”

For non-Australian readers (and non-footy fans), here’s an explanatory video from the AFL:

So, what are the parallels between a “don’t argue” and a business attempting to PIVOT?

Your short-term strategy may change but the overall goal remains the same: although Pearce may suddenly need to run in a different direction to her original course, she’s still focused on the goal posts at the end of the field.

It happens fast, it’s immediate, and it’s often instinctive: CPOs often don’t have much time to plan and react to a disruptive force (an enormous footballer bearing down on you at high speed makes a great analogy). Decisions have to be made fast.

There’s no time to argue: Depending on the nature of the disruptive force, you won’t have time to initiate a long, internal debate about what to do. Instead, a fast decision could enable your company to mitigate the damage of a disruptive force, or even profit by it.

Thriving in a male-dominated profession

While the AFL (men’s football) has been around since the 1850s, women’s football in Australia has only officially existed since 2013.

“When I was 14, the rules were that I had to stop playing football with the boys in my hometown”, said Pearce. “I didn’t know back then that there was going to be a Women’s League, and thought my football career had finished. I turned to volleyball instead, before being drafted in the AFLW in 2013.

“I wouldn’t say I’ve had to overcome many barriers to become a footballer. Then main barrier, I’d say, would be that I simply didn’t consider football to be a career choice. The real barriers existed for talented women who wanted to play professionally before 2013.”

Pearce has more than one string to her bow – she’s entered the world of football commentary (also dominated by men), started a career on the speaker circuit, and has also worked as a professional midwife. “The opposite is true for midwifery”, she says. “There may be young men considering a career as a midwife, but are daunted by the female domination of the profession. My advice is to go for it – if you’re passionate about something, and it’s what you really want to do, there’s nothing stopping you.”

Leadership on the field:

As captain of the Melbourne AFLW team, Pearce has plenty of leadership insights to share:

“My main piece of advice for leaders is to first, have a really good understanding of yourself and about how your behaviours impact others. Secondly, make an effort to understand the people on your team. Appreciate that everyone has different strengths, and will respond to different things.

“Invest in your relationships with team members and build rapport. In the long-term, it will help enormously when you need to have tough conversations. You can be both supportive and tough at the same time – people need to know you’re coming from a place of care rather than disinterest.”

The gender pay gap in procurement and supply management has INCREASED, according to US and UK survey results released this week. Have you sponsored your own internal gender salary gap analysis?

Ever considered how procurement salaries measure up with the rest of the working world?

Are you suspicious that your procurement colleagues might be getting a better deal than you?

If you’re a woman working within procurement and supply chain, have you ever wondered how glaring the pay gap is within your industry or organisation?

This week, ISM’s Twelfth Annual Salary Survey in the US and the CIPS/Hays Salary Survey in the UK have shed some light on all of the above. Whilst there’s clearly still a very long way to go in terms of the gender pay gap (predicted to take another 170 years to close), things are otherwise looking pretty comfortable for the procurement and supply chain profession….

ISM Salary Survey Results

Now would be a great time to convince your boss you deserve that pay rise, because the Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) Twelfth Annual Salary Survey has been released. The results are based on data from 3808 supply management professionals who were surveyed throughout February and March 2017 to determine these average salaries:

Average Salary: $115,440

Median Salary: $90,000

Average for Men: $126, 710

Average for Women $96,990

In the US, a person working in professional, management or related occupations earns an average of $63,076 annually, which means these results are pretty good news for the supply management profession.

The figures show a 5 per cent increase in average compensation since 2015. Men’s salaries have risen by 8.2 per cent and women’s by 3 per cent.

The super bad news is that procurement appears to be taking a step backwards with regards to equal pay. In 2015 women earned 24 per cent less than men, compared with 31 per cent this year.

UK Pay Gaps Revealed

It’s not just ISM’s figures proving to be disappointing in terms of gender equality.

As of last month, UK organisations employing more than 250 people are obliged to publish their gender pay gap figures.

Virgin Money disclosed that men who work at the bank earn, on average, 36 per cent more than women, asset manager, Schroders, reported a 31 per cent gap and Utility SSE a 24 per cent gap.

Some are against the new legislation arguing that the numbers don’t give a full picture and place all the blame in the hands of the employers. Others are in favour of the full disclosure and think it will spur organisations and governments to crack down harder on gender inequality.

UK Procurement Salaries Outstrip Average

The CIPS/Hays Salary Guide and Insights 2017 has surveyed over 4,000 procurement employers and employees to learn everything from key trends in salaries to challenges faced by employers and the top benefits desired by procurement professionals at all levels of seniority.

Whilst the average annual UK pay increase is 2.2 per cent, procurement professionals in the UK are receiving an average of 5.3 per cent more! Jacki Buist, writing on Supply Management, believes the results show a “continuing enthusiasm for the profession in all regions.”

Unpredictably, the cause for concern falls once again in the region of gender disparity. Overall, the pay gap is reducing but at the advanced professional level, men receive an average of £82,000, compared with a woman’s £65,700.

Amazon is adding 400 staff to a new research and development centre focused on machine learning, in a move that reinforces the retail group’s long-term investment in the UK

The lab will develop the voice-activated Echo speaker and Prime Air drones

By the end of this year, Amazon plans to add another 5,000 British employees to its payroll, open a new 600,000 sq ft headquarters in central London, and operate three new fulfilment centres around the country

Put simply, blockchains take out the middle man (banks) and make the transfer of funds more streamlined and safe

The United Nations (UN) used one particular blockchain, Ethereum, to distribute funds from the World Food Program (WFP) in a pilot program earlier this year. The experiment successfully, distributed aid to 100 people in Pakistan

The system will now be used in Jordan to distribute funds to more than 10,000 people. It’s expected to help support 500,000 recipients by 2018

Jackie Aggett, Regional Commercial Manager at Laing O’Rourke, discusses the gender bias she has come up against in procurement, and how she has overcome it to get to where she is today.

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Everyone loves a good throwback article, which is why we’re hopping in our time machine to bring you back some of the biggest and best Procurious blogs. If you missed any of the golden oldies, look no further!

This week, we’re revisiting an interview with Jackie Aggett who explains the gender discrimination she’s endured and her advice on how to overcome it.

Jackie Aggett hadn’t been in procurement long when she needed to spend weeks preparing a major annual report about the procurement of earth moving tyres.

She handed it over to the site manager and watched him hurl the report angrily across the room. It hit the wall and fell apart.

“What would you know about earth moving tyres?,” he bellowed?
The 28-year-old calmly walked over and picked up the report, and told him again that there were going to be changes. Like it, or not.

“Every part of me wanted to turn around and run out the door, but I’ve always found ways to overcome challenges in the workplace and turn them into opportunities,” Aggett says.

Finding a Voice

The experience did nothing to dampen her conviction. She has worked in male dominated roles for 25 years. She started out in a supply cadetship at BHP Billiton and then went on to work in rail, construction, marine services and a seawater desalination plant.

“I learned a lot in that cadetship. My boss at the time gave me the cadetship because he saw me as being very courageous, which was part of my upbringing. He sent me straight to Port Headland, where I was the only female.”

Her colleagues weren’t used to working with women. The only uniform available to her was the men’s trousers and shirts. “They were ill-fitting and very uncomfortable. Procuring some clothes to wear to work was high on the list in those early days,” Aggett says.

If anything, her presence among the male workforce was seen perhaps only as a novelty. But that all changed once she began finding her voice in the business, and began offering new solutions to old problems.

“I had a good work ethic and believed in what I was doing, and hit the ground running. But the team weren’t engaged when I started to suggest change, and that was a difficult process to go through. However, I didn’t give up. I continued to speak up and stand up for myself.”

Creating Trusted Advisors

Aggett’s depth of experience covers roles in commercial, contractual and financial management from project start-up through to close-out. This includes all facets of tender preparation, negotiation, contract award and subsequent on-site contract administration, claims, project controls, forecasting, financial reporting and risk management as the client asset owner or contractor.

Six months ago, she was tapped on the shoulder and offered the role of procurement head with international engineering enterprise Laing O’Rourke, which took her across the country from Perth to Sydney. She jumped at the chance.

Her focus in her role has been creating a vision – working to transform the procurement function from spend managers to trusted advisers, firstly among her team of 35 people.

“It is imperative we move beyond being seen and acting as a governance compliance function. We need to understand the business strategy and align our objectives to deliver sustainable value,” she says.

Challenging the Norm

Aggett has implemented a supply relationship management programme among other initiatives, which has been a big step forward for the procurement function within the business.

“A key part of this has been challenging the way in which we engage with the supply chain. The supply chain has a wealth of knowledge and capability which, if tapped into, can provide value creating solutions for our clients, ourselves and our supply chain partners.

“Unfortunately, the construction industry does not often afford the supply chain the opportunity to bring their knowledge and capabilities to the table. Our supplier relationship management program seeks to change this.”

Aggett wasn’t specifically chasing roles in such large corporate organisations, saying one thing just led to another.

“It certainly wasn’t planned that I’d work in male-dominated industries. I had four brothers and a working mother, and was raised to believe that girls can do anything.”

Overcoming Roadblocks

She admits that early on in her career, she came up against road blocks, but didn’t for a moment consider that had anything to do with gender bias.

“I definitely came up against a lot of unconscious bias in my early roles, and at times doing my job took some courage and self-belief. Being female has definitely been a challenge in the roles I’ve held.

“I’d wonder why someone wouldn’t listen to me, or how I could better showcase my skills. I’d work very hard to win someone over, and go through the problem solving process to try and work out why I wasn’t getting the result I wanted. The fact that I was a woman was always at the bottom of the list. Now, after 25 years working in the industry, I arrive at that conclusion a lot quicker and obviously have a lot more confidence in the role.”

Aggett hopes times have changed and that young women entering the procurement industry don’t come up against the gender bias she experienced.

“Saying that, I have been fortunate to work with individuals and organisations that have encouraged me to take opportunities, to believe in my abilities and to reward me for my efforts. I have experienced many organisations that have allowed flexibility in my working week, as I’ve raised two daughters as a single parent.”

While there are no requirements to do so, she advocates the importance of having a degree behind you for anyone working in procurement. Her law and finance degree has stood her in good stead, she says.

“It has absolutely served me well to have the formal qualifications behind me. When people are passionate about procurement and they’ve got the formal education, it gives them a seat at the board table in any situation they’re in.”

Procurious launched Bravo, a group to celebrate and promote women working in procurement. Get involved by joining here.

Anne Tesch is one of those professionals who has facts and figures at her fingertips to back up every point she makes. As she tells Procurious, it’s vital that supply managers have the facts in their possession when pursuing a goal as important as increasing gender diversity.

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Why should gender diversity be high on every company’s agenda?

Where should I start? There’s a vast amount of global research and evidence on the importance of women’s economic empowerment and the benefits of hiring women-owned businesses. To list a few key studies:

McKinsey’s Global Institute report found that $12 trillion could be added to the Global GDP by 2025 by advancing women’s equality. Economies most impacted (with GDP gains) would be India (16%), Latin America (14%), China (12%), and Sub-Saharan African (12%);

Another McKinsey survey found that 34% of companies said working with women-owned suppliers had increased their profits;

Women perform 66% of the world’s work, produce 50% of the food, but earn only 10% of the income, and own very little of the world’s private property;

There are approximately 187 million women entrepreneurs worldwide who own between 32% and 39% of all businesses in the formal economy;

Women dominate the global marketplace by controlling more than $20 trillion in consumer spending that will rise to $30 trillion in the next decade; and

According to research conducted by WEConnect International, women-owned businesses globally earn less than 1% of the money spent on products and services by large corporations and governments.

What are your recommendations for supply managers looking to increase their engagement with women-owned businesses?

1. Know your numbers

Firstly, it’s important to know the percentage of women-owned businesses in your supply arrangements. Why not do some research and ask suppliers if they are “women-owned” which, by definition, means that they are at least 51% owned, managed and controlled by one or more women. Furthermore, why not consider tracking tier 2 spend, as smart companies will often increase spend with women-owned businesses to win large contracts.

2. Spread the word

Convince others in your team that working with women-owned suppliers is good for business. A recent McKinsey survey indicated that working with women-owned suppliers increases profits, while the Hackett Group’s research last September shows 99% of diverse suppliers meet buyers’ expectations, with nearly 25% exceeding expectations.

Though improvement to the bottom line is always important, incorporating women-owned businesses in your supply chain also provides an opportunity to grow your customer base, attract and retain talent, and enhance your branding – all while increasing profits and reducing costs.

3. Network, network, network

Accessing networks of women-owned businesses, even just to participate in RFPs, is a critical success factor but one of the more difficult parts of starting and managing a supplier diversity program. Engaging with third parties that specialise in connecting buyers with diverse suppliers, such as WEConnect International, can assist this process. Our organisation certifies women-owned businesses through a rigorous, globally accepted process, and provides access to these organisations through our eNetwork.

What are the proven benefits of having more women in your supply chain?

Women influence the vast majority of purchasing decisions globally, but they are significantly underrepresented in global value chains. Even though more than one third of private businesses are owned and controlled by women, on average, women earn only 1 percent of large corporate and government spend globally. Benefits of having more women in your supply chain include:

Mirroring your diverse customer and employee base – it’s important to reflect the communities around the globe where you operate, not only with staffing, but also with your supplier base;